Kingdom Simulator: I, a Fallen Noble, Build a God-Level Kingdom!-Chapter 67: Bad Signal, Didn’t Hear You

The Magitech Drone bombardment lasted three minutes, turning a hundred-meter stretch of the main road into a river of molten lava.

Even the barrels of the third-generation drones had begun to melt, but each one held out until its energy was completely depleted before being scrapped.

At that moment—

In the midst of the molten flow, two figures emerged.

As soon as Romon saw that only two red dots remained on the Simulator Blueprint, he immediately took control of a special third-generation drone—this one a Lord-exclusive model equipped with all the latest prototype features.

Through its viewfinder, he could see everything ahead with perfect clarity.

There, in the lava, two charred figures were still struggling. The tall, skinny one flung the other up onto the bank, then, shrouded in green light, leapt onto the searing ground himself.

The green glow flared around the tall figure, gradually resolving into a barely recognizable human shape.

That was Aiken, the priest of Nightingale Territory.

As soon as he regained his human form, Aiken hurried to heal the other blackened figure. Bathed in the healing radiance, Thomas Nightingale’s face came into view.

"Hiff"

Anyone who’s played online games knows: in team fights, you have to take out the healer first. Don’t give the healer a single moment to breathe, or in just a few quick heals, the whole team will be back to full health.

The same principle applied here.

Seeing this, Romon mentally gave himself a zero—he’d actually let these two crawl out of the lava. Not professional at all.

He immediately pressed the fire button. A single third-generation drone wouldn’t do much, but this was just a signal.

The moment he fired, Akalaisi, who had been waiting with her bow drawn, immediately released the string.

This wasn’t one of her volatile golden lightning arrows.

It was a Dawn Arrow, charged with explosive might!

"Whoosh—BOOM!"

The arrow exploded mid-air with a thunderous roar, shredding even the surrounding trees into splinters as it passed!

The arrow was originally aimed at Priest Aiken’s head. But the opponent was, after all, of royal rank—even if his offensive power as a priest was lacking, his perception and reflexes were still top-notch thanks to his level.

With his scorched legs, he managed to sidestep half a pace to the right.

"BOOM!"

The arrow’s shockwave didn’t kill him outright, but it blasted off his charred left shoulder and arm.

"AAAH!!"

Aiken screamed in pain. Although his body was blackened, he hadn’t lost all feeling. With his strength, his bones and muscles still worked, or he wouldn’t have been able to save Thomas Nightingale.

But Thomas Nightingale himself was in dire straits.

Because of the emergency, Aiken had only healed him halfway. Though his face was clear enough to breathe, now that his mind was back online, the pain wracking his body made him convulse, retching sour bile.

At that moment—

Romon, controlling the Lord-exclusive third-generation drone, fired a grappling hook and hauled Thomas Nightingale over.

He adjusted the drone’s angle, staring at Thomas Nightingale lying on the ground.

"Hey, hey, hey! Can you hear me? Damn Nightingale, check if your balls are still attached!"

Romon’s voice came through the third-gen drone, crisp and undistorted. The tone, the phrasing—it was like a dagger twisted deep into Thomas Nightingale’s heart.

Forget about his manhood; right now, even his arms and legs were little more than blackened sticks, burnt down to brittle kindling.

If not for Aiken’s healing barely keeping him alive, he would’ve been dead already.

He simply couldn’t fathom how Romon had grown so powerful, and so quickly. If you looked away for even a moment, Romon had already become terrifying beyond belief.

"Ro...mon...Aiken...he’s...not...here..." Thomas, his anger flaring, fought through the agony to send a warning to his priest.

But Aiken had his own problems—and besides, Thomas’s words were pointless. Of course Romon wasn’t here in person; they’d been ambushed halfway down the road. With burns this severe, Thomas’s brain was probably already cooked.

Aiken quickly channeled a healing spell, staunching the bleeding from his left shoulder.

Then, even as he fled into the trees, he began to chant aloud:

"Oh merciful God of Light, let the defiler who offends Your majesty be judged by the holy sword..."

"Sword of Divine Judgment!"

His chant was lightning-fast. In a flash, a massive golden blade materialized in the sky above.

But before the sword could descend, an arrow shot from the side, simultaneously piercing both of his legs.

His charred legs exploded into bloody fragments, and now Aiken—reduced to half a body—rolled helplessly across the ground like a dead pig, finally coming to rest against a tree.

Even so, he did not give up. He instantly cast the strongest healing spell he could, stopping the bleeding and even forcing new flesh to bud from the stumps of his legs!

"May the God of Light shelter me, drive out this pain, and heal—"

"Divine Redemption!"

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a lithe black silhouette appeared behind him. Twin curved daggers flashed, slashing mercilessly for his throat.

It was Nini, now promoted to Phantom Assassin.

But even a Phantom Assassin had limits. Just as her blades were about to cut Aiken’s throat, an invisible force lashed down on her from above.

Nini leapt back in alarm, only then realizing it was the Sword of Divine Judgment still suspended overhead.

"Damn, that was close—just a second slower and I’d be dead. So this is the gap between levels..." Nini’s heart thudded in her chest.

"Get clear!" Talia’s voice called out. The next instant, a pillar of light as thick as a barrel crashed down from the heavens.

It was her Orbital Magic.

The torrent of magic struck Aiken dead-on; even the aftershock turned the nearby rubble and trees into ash.

But when the magic dissipated, Aiken was still alive!

His body sparked with green light like a short-circuiting piece of machinery, rapidly knitting his wounds closed.

"What kind of monster-level regeneration is this?!" Talia exclaimed.

If not for the 600 Magitech Drones bombarding him for three straight minutes, the few of them alone might have to fight until the end of time just to scrape a layer of his skin.

No matter how much damage they dealt, he simply healed it away—and on top of that, he had the Sword of Divine Judgment.

The massive sword of light hovered above him, neither exploding nor causing much area damage. Its sole purpose was to shield its caster from close-range harm.

After Nini and Talia’s brief probing attacks.

Akalaisi’s assault was ready. She drew her bow to its full extension once again, this time wreathed in golden lightning from head to toe, as if the Thunder God had descended to earth.

Nini and Talia quickly backed away—even they could feel the terror of this shot.

The next instant—

Akalaisi released the bowstring. The arrow transformed into a bolt of lightning, instantly reducing the trees along its path to ash, and even tearing up the ground for three feet around!

That shot cleared out a circular area with a ten-meter diameter!

BOOM!

The lightning arrow collided with the tip of the Sword of Divine Judgment; apparently, that skill could intermittently shield its user.

The two powerful abilities struck with a blast, unleashing a shockwave visible to the naked eye that rippled outward in all directions!

Even the Magitech Drone operators waiting at a distance were knocked off their feet by the force.

From afar, the whole main road seemed to erupt, with the collision as its center, a shockwave expanding rapidly and toppling the surrounding forest.

Crack—

Suddenly, a fissure appeared on the Sword of Divine Judgment, and then quickly spread.

Aiken stared at the sight, despair rising in his heart.

He had never imagined a Lord could lay such an ambush, nor that magitech constructs could wield such destructive power—each one on par with a Grand Mage!

How much would it cost to field 600 Grand Mages? What kind of resources would that take?

A Grand Mage needed to chant, to expend mana, to pause between spells...

But these magitech machines could attack nonstop, without incantation, for three entire minutes!

If you measured overall output over those three minutes, it was truly comparable to a Magus!

"Damn it! I never should have gotten involved in this..." Regret flooded Aiken’s mind.

Because aside from the 600 magitech constructs, the enemy also had a fearsome dual-cultivated archer.

That archer could not only fuse magic into their arrows, but was at the damn Dawnstrider Archer level!

A dual-class at that level—honestly, if they faced him one-on-one, the odds would be three to seven at worst!

But Romon had never given him the chance for a fair duel; everything had been meticulously prepared in advance. As long as the preparations were in place, even a King-ranked priest would be beaten down and forced to call him father!

Crack—

At last, the Sword of Divine Judgment suspended in the sky shattered. Aiken’s skill failed, and Akalaisi’s lightning arrow, still crackling with residual power, finally struck the battered but unyielding Aiken.

BOOM!

This final blow obliterated Aiken, reducing him to dust—leaving not the slightest chance for another healing spell.

Through the Simulator Blueprint, Romon saw the last persistent red dot vanish, leaving only Thomas Nightingale, hooked and helpless beneath his drone.

"Everyone else is finished. Now it’s just you."

"Kid—no, Romon, Lord Romon, I surrender! I declare this war, which I started, over with my surrender! You can’t touch me now—I’m protected by royal law! I demand invocation of humanitarian aid between Lords—you’re obligated to render me assistance!"

Romon listened to Thomas Nightingale’s desperate stream of words, silent for a long moment.

Just as Thomas thought Romon was about to accept his surrender, Romon replied, "Sorry, bad signal. Didn’t catch that."

"Wh-what signal?"

"Oh, I mean—if you’re dead, no one will know you surrendered." Romon piloted the third-gen drone closer to Thomas Nightingale’s head. "That way, I can take your territory piece by piece. You started this war; without you, there’s no need for it to end."

"You—you wouldn’t dare! His Majesty the King will judge you for this!"

Romon gave a cold laugh, snuffing out Thomas’s last hope. "The carrier pigeon will say it was the princess who killed you."